Ok, here once again I'm delving into something I know nothing about directly (not being a ferret breeder) but since I did work a lot with color genetics of the Netherland Dwarf rabbit when I bred those for years, thought I might be able to help just a bit. BTW, a great basic introduction to color genetics of animals is a book by Bobby Schott called something like "The Color Genetics of the Netherland Dwarf," often available from small-animal supply mail-order companies. It opens with a chapter about terminology, the use of Punnett squares to predict color and genotype, and has great information on what actually produces color - it will help you understand what's happening with albinism and patterns! Anyway, what we call chocolate in rabbits is a what would be a black animal if it didn't have genes which made it express brown pigments instead of true black. Dilution is something different - the dilute of a black is a beautiful true blue (looks like a Russian Blue cat), and the dilute of a chocolate is known as a lilac (a pastel sort of pink dove-gray). Both dilution and chocolate are recessive to full color and black. Based on what I've gathered from the argument however, I don't think your chocolates and rabbit chocolate are the same at all. The alleles for cinnamon and red color traits (two different things completely) are on different alleles from the others already mentioned - it's extremely complicated! This breed of rabbit has 36 recognized color varieties, and several dozen more commonly seen but not accepted for show. I second the motion that a group of knowledgeable breeders should get together, standardize color names and descriptions, and struggle through some detailed genetic analysis. The patterns can wait until after you work through what's happening with the very basic self and sable-type colors. Good luck, I don't envy your positions! --jessi, kindjal, and chani [Posted in FML issue 1927]